Hey, I work in software and design consulting and lead the commercial team at an agency.
I think it's a real challenge you are facing but there is always a way to make it work by evolving.
Some questions:
How did you get leads before and what was working for you until recently?
I haven't looked at your socials, I know you mentioned being in twitter/x. How are you using those channels, e.g. what are you posting that would catch the attention of a buyer? E.g. running a campaign based on something interesting in your space that will be useful to your target audience.
Do you have an ideal client profile and do you already have a sales funnel e.g. how to attract your ICP and take them through a process to closing them e.g. discovery call, proposal deck, pricing and contract etc?
Some comments:
I'm getting leads every week where a business owner has built and designed something with AI, but what they now need is security, hosting, hardening etc so it could be you may need to move up the value chain e.g. often these pieces of work are poorly designed, no accessibility considerations, not thought to good information hierarchy or UX/UI.
I think design led discovery is still valuable; user research, prototypes etc telling businesses the right thing to build in a world where people are just throwing together AI stuff.
I would recommend like others to make it clear on your website what you do, why to work with you, how to work with you, and make it easy to get in touch.
I think it's worth considering spending a lot of time on sales, e.g. marketing, outbound, referrals, campaigns, build a pipeline and so on.
Good luck!
I think it's a real challenge you are facing but there is always a way to make it work by evolving.
Some questions:
How did you get leads before and what was working for you until recently?
I haven't looked at your socials, I know you mentioned being in twitter/x. How are you using those channels, e.g. what are you posting that would catch the attention of a buyer? E.g. running a campaign based on something interesting in your space that will be useful to your target audience.
Do you have an ideal client profile and do you already have a sales funnel e.g. how to attract your ICP and take them through a process to closing them e.g. discovery call, proposal deck, pricing and contract etc?
Some comments:
I'm getting leads every week where a business owner has built and designed something with AI, but what they now need is security, hosting, hardening etc so it could be you may need to move up the value chain e.g. often these pieces of work are poorly designed, no accessibility considerations, not thought to good information hierarchy or UX/UI.
I think design led discovery is still valuable; user research, prototypes etc telling businesses the right thing to build in a world where people are just throwing together AI stuff.
I would recommend like others to make it clear on your website what you do, why to work with you, how to work with you, and make it easy to get in touch.
I think it's worth considering spending a lot of time on sales, e.g. marketing, outbound, referrals, campaigns, build a pipeline and so on.
Good luck!